Blouse Elisabeth & Salopette Sailor

Have you ever heard of the Röschti Graben? No? That’s a wide ditch that stretches across Switzerland. An impressive ditch. There were even attempts to include it in the immaterial cultural heritage of Unesco. But if you look for it on google earth, it will be difficult: it is invisible. Nevertheless, it is absolutely noticeable. Not only by the different languages, or in the different voting behavior of the French-speaking compared to the German-speaking Switzerland; the Röschtigraben shows up with the children (different first name preferences), cuisine and clothes (fabrics and patterns).

I, the heroine I am, will build a bridge over the Röschti Graben here and now. It may not be very stable: It’s made of fabric and comes in the form of an outfit. An outfit sewn from French woven fabrics and with the help of French patterns. And as a Swiss-German-speaking woman, I carry it across the (language) border.

I came to my ambassador job through Ana. She runs a fabric shop called Tissus & Co in French-speaking part of Switzerland. In her assortment she has beautiful fabrics and patterns from France that you can’t find anywhere else in Switzerland. Since she recently translated her shop into German, she asked me if I would like to carry this good news out into the German-speaking world in the form of design examples. As you can imagine, the answer was YES!

I chose the blouse Elisabeth  by Republique du Chiffon for my outfit. I liked the high frilled collar and the gathered shoulder areas. Because the blouse is rather wide and the gatherings fall nicely I decided for a light fabric with some body: A viscose crepe in off white. Unfortunately the fabric is already sold out. But it is still available in the colour Coral.

What I particularly like about the blouse next to the frill collar is the back neckline, which comes with a cheeky slit on the upper back.

Oh, and the cuffs are also very beautiful. Sewing the small loops takes some time, but the result is worth it.

I sewed the blouse Elisabeth in size 42, no changes. Apart from the fact that I lengthened the sleeves, which wouldn’t have been necessary afterwards. But now to the trousers. I haven’t worn dungarees since my childhood. And so far I had zero motivation to revive my childhood. Until now.

The dungarees Sailor from Dessin moi un Patron got me around. With her narrow, crossed bib and the bows on the shoulders she looks feminine and elegant.

The two front parts are held together with the help of buttons. Here you could make a nice contrast to the fabric. However, I decided to use a subtle tone-in-tone variation for the buttons.

The trouser fabric is a light twill with some spandex. (Thanks to the spandex I didn’t have to sew in a zipper, a nice side effect). At the bow you can see the pretty pinstripes. I like that they take up the color of the blouse again. In addition, with an outfit in blue and white you are always right anyway. By the way, I have sewn size 40, which simply fits perfectly. But with a thicker, inelastic fabric I would go one size bigger.

Congratulations for reading this far: I haven’t written such a long post in a long time. But I’m rarely sewn to an outfit that long. But it was 100% worth it: I love my new outfit! What I am also happy about are the pretty pictures Tanja took of me and my outfit. So photographing is much more pleasant than handling the self-timer and the tripod and the result can definitely be seen! Many thanks dear Tanja! And to you I wish

Happy Sewing

• • Fabrics: Viskose Crepe Bleuroz, Navy Twill provided by Tissus & Co
  • Patterns: Blouse Elisabeth  by République du Chiffon, Salopette Sailor by Dessin moi un Patron provided by Tissu & Co
  • Photocredits: Tanja Frei Photography
  • Linked with: DDD, SewLaLa